Start time: 5/14/03, 9:30am
Location: Local neighborhood
Activity: Running
Distance: 2.5 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 3:1
Average pace: 13:25min/mile

While still trying to decide my training plans, I figured I should try out what would be my new run:walk ratio. If I’m going to be in the 14:00min/mile group, that means I should be training at a 3:1, instead of my old pace of a 3:2 (for 14:30min/mile).

Phew. I knew I did the first loop way too fast, something I am all too familiar with doing when out on my own. Especially at a new pace, I have a tendency to blast through my run cycles and then collapse in a heap before too long. (Especially since with switching from 3:2 to 3:1, my running speed should actually be slower than before, if you think about it.) So when halfway through my second loop I had to walk a little extra, I felt emotionally crushed, even though logically I knew that this was because of the far-too-fast earlier speed. In the end, with an extra two minutes of walking in the second loop I still ended up just over half-a-minute per mile too fast overall. Yeesh. (Even with the temporary crash, the second half clocked in exactly at a 14:00min/mile. Waaaay too fast in the first half.)

So now I’m still in “furnace mode” even after a nice cold shower. As soon as my body temperature drops a little lower, off to work I go…